The contenders for this year's three boys basketball sectional titles has changed some, but the numbers look very similar to last season.

If no other team qualifies in the final few days of the season, the Division I and II tournaments will have eight and 10 teams, respectively, the same as last year. The Division III playoff would be at 13, down one from last year.

A couple of teams still have a shot at the tournament, like Mahar which needs to win one of its final two, and Monson needs to win its season finale.

Westfield and defending champion Longmeadow stayed alive with wins on Friday, but both need to win their final two games.

The tournament committee will get together on Saturday at the Basketball Hall of Fame to map out the seeds for each division.

If there are no big upsets this week then the top seeds for the tournament will likely be Sci-Tech in Division I, Hoosac Valley in Division II and Sabis in Division III.

Northampton will probably be the second seed in Division I, but after that it's anybody's guess, with East Longmeadow, Central, Minnechaug and Chicopee all possibilities.

Division II will likely be dominated by the Berkshire teams. Drury is a close second to Hoosac, followed by Taconic, Palmer and South Hadley.

While New Leadership has the best chance to beat Sabis in Division III, it has already lost to the Bulldogs twice. That's how far ahead of the pack Sabis is right now.

DROUGHT OVER FOR EAGLES: The last time Franklin Tech played in the postseason, there was no national debt, the country wasn't at war and the World Trade Center twin towers were still standing.

Eight years have passed since the Eagles last played in the Western Massachusetts Division III tournament, but that all came to an end when they handed St. Mary a 78-49 defeat last Tuesday.

It was 2000-01 the last time Franklin Tech reached the tournament, finishing the regular season at 10-10 but losing to Gateway in the preliminary round.

Since then the Eagles haven't managed to win more than six games in a season.

Until now.

TIGERS' TALE: Once again South Hadley is in the Division II tournament field with a losing record, but don't expect the heroics of last season's tournament run.

The Tigers, who play in the Suburban League which is made up of five Division I teams and South Hadley, were just 6-14 in the regular season last year but qualified for the postseason based on winning better than 50 percent of its Div. II games.

Seeded last in the field, the Tigers won their second straight Western Massachusetts crown and fourth in five years.

But last year South Hadley, which plays a brutal schedule, got healthy at the right time.

That doesn't look like it's going to help this year, even though the Tigers have a better regular season record.

But South Hadley has surprised everyone one in the past and should never be counted out.
TWO FOR A 1,000: Franklin Tech's Tom Glabach became just the second boys basketball player this season to reach 1,000 points in his career when he dropped 40 on Pathfinder Friday night.

And there's less than a week left in the season.

Compare that to last season when 13 players reached the milestone.

Glabach, a senior guard, joins junior Andre King of Sabis as the only 1,000-point scorers this season.